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This incident happend about three weeks ago, and I originally posted about it in the forums.
WTF is the deal with some parents these days? I'm sitting here tonight, minding my own business, and there's a knock on my door. I answered it, and there's this kid at the door, and a pickup parked in the street. Now, this kid is well known around the neighborhood. Nobody knows where he lives, but he just appeared around here a few months ago. At first glance, everyone, including me, thought "this kids got trouble written all over him". You know that feeling that you get when you just know that someone's going to be trouble. You can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but your spidey senses go "hey". He's probably 12 or 13 years old.
Well, shortly after appearing in the neighborhood, he was riding his bike up and down the street with one of those air pistols that shoots the little rubber BBs, shooting it at the various kids in the neighborhood. He shot one of the kids in the eye. Didn't do any permanent damage, but I know that it hurt like hell.
A couple of days ago, this kid was back in the neighborhood, riding his bike. One of the neighbors says that he was in the street in front of their house, slamming on the brakes on his bike so that he would flip over the handlebars. He did this repeatedly, flipping the bike over frontwards, landing on the asphalt, with the bike landing on him. Smart kid, eh?
Apparently, yesterday, he was down at a neighbor's house, where my oldest daughter plays with their grand-daughter. My daughter later went to the neighbors across the street from us to go swimming. Sometime yesterday, this weird kid lost his Game Boy, which brings us to tonight's events.
As I said, I answered the door, and there is this kid on my porch, and a pickup parked in the street. my daughter was right behind me headed to the door to see who it was, which was really convenient because I didn't have to yell for her. He asked her where his Game Boy was, and she said that she never had it and doesn't know where it is. I never saw her bring anything in over the weekend, other than wet towels.
So, this kid turns to walk away. He gets two steps off of the porch and this woman (I use that term extremely loosely here) comes barreling out of the pickup and up through my yard. Right off, she starts yelling that my daughter's got his Game Boy, she's got witnesses that saw her with it, and if we don't give it back she's calling the cops.
Like I said, I can be polite. But, if you come barreling up into my yard with the attitude that this woman had, raising as much of a stink as she did, polite is the last thing that you're going to get.
I told her that my daughter didn't have it, and if she wanted to call the cops to go right ahead and I'd let them in to look for it. Well, that just pissed her off even more and she went storming off to her pickup saying that she was going to go get her "witnesses" and bring them over and call the cops. I told her to go ahead and save the gas and call the cops now, or I could call them for her. That really pissed her off. She grabbed her cell phone and called 911. Of course, she's pissed, so she's yelling at the dispatcher, which means that I can hear everything that she's saying, and it was rather amusing. It went something like this--
"I need an officer at <my address>. I'm being threatened."
"Yes, I'm being threatened by a man at <my address>."
"Hurry, I'm being threatened."
So, polite went from being just inside the door, to being locked in a safe without knowing the combination.
She calls down to the mother of the girl that my daughter plays with at her grandparent's house telling them "He says that he knows that you're daughter has it", at which point I yell "I never said that she had it. I said that my daughter didn't have it."
At this point, my wife enters the picture, hearing my comments and asking who the "she" was. I told her, and she walked down the street to the girl's mother's house to talk to her and the girl's grandparent's (they only live a couple of houses apart).
Now, while all of this is going on, this kid is yelling at his mother, telling her "take me home now, bitch", "I just want to go home", "forget it, take me home", etc. He starts punching the tailgate of the pickup. When the cops show up a few minutes later, he's punching the side of the bed of the pickup, and the cop has to physically restrain him to make him stop. One cop talks to her, while another comes over to me.
As he approaches, I comment "I guess you're here about a woman being threatened." He nods, and asks what's going on, so I tell him. He makes a comment about the kid being "problematic". I said "Yep, I saw what he was doing when you pulled up. Here's what he's been doing around here since he showed up...", and proceeded to tell him of this kids antics in the neighborhood.
He passes off the information to the other cop and tells us that the other cop with be with us shortly. The other cop walks up and verifies what we had told the first cop. He tells us that from his investigation, we're not suspects. I told him that it didn't matter if we were suspects or not, I wanted him to check my daughter's room to see that the Game Boy wasn't in there. He did, and it wasn't there, so I told him as we're walking to the door to tell that woman, and her kid, to stay away from my house or I would have them arrested for trespassing. (In Texas, if you tell an officer, or tell someone in front of witnesses to stay off of your property, and they come back, that's all that's needed to have them arrested for criminal trespassing.)
As for this woman, what happened to being polite and showing even a hint of manners? Has our society regressed so far that the norm is flying off the handle before you even attempt to get the facts straight? Is it now "OK" to go to someone's home and verbally attack them before you even introduce yourself, over something that they didn't do? What kind of example is this setting for her kid? Or my daughter, who was innocently standing at the door when all of this was going down?
When I was a kid, if I had acted the way that this kid was, I would have been spanked all the way back to the house. If I had talked to my mother the way that he was talking to his, I probably would have been slapped hard enough to loosen a few teeth. Has Child Protective Services gone so far with their claims of "abuse" that parents are now afraid to spank their children? For some things, spanking is the only thing that will "get the point across". For some things, "timeout" and "grounding" just aren't stiff enough punishments.
WTF is the deal with some parents these days? I'm sitting here tonight, minding my own business, and there's a knock on my door. I answered it, and there's this kid at the door, and a pickup parked in the street. Now, this kid is well known around the neighborhood. Nobody knows where he lives, but he just appeared around here a few months ago. At first glance, everyone, including me, thought "this kids got trouble written all over him". You know that feeling that you get when you just know that someone's going to be trouble. You can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but your spidey senses go "hey". He's probably 12 or 13 years old.
Well, shortly after appearing in the neighborhood, he was riding his bike up and down the street with one of those air pistols that shoots the little rubber BBs, shooting it at the various kids in the neighborhood. He shot one of the kids in the eye. Didn't do any permanent damage, but I know that it hurt like hell.
A couple of days ago, this kid was back in the neighborhood, riding his bike. One of the neighbors says that he was in the street in front of their house, slamming on the brakes on his bike so that he would flip over the handlebars. He did this repeatedly, flipping the bike over frontwards, landing on the asphalt, with the bike landing on him. Smart kid, eh?
Apparently, yesterday, he was down at a neighbor's house, where my oldest daughter plays with their grand-daughter. My daughter later went to the neighbors across the street from us to go swimming. Sometime yesterday, this weird kid lost his Game Boy, which brings us to tonight's events.
As I said, I answered the door, and there is this kid on my porch, and a pickup parked in the street. my daughter was right behind me headed to the door to see who it was, which was really convenient because I didn't have to yell for her. He asked her where his Game Boy was, and she said that she never had it and doesn't know where it is. I never saw her bring anything in over the weekend, other than wet towels.
So, this kid turns to walk away. He gets two steps off of the porch and this woman (I use that term extremely loosely here) comes barreling out of the pickup and up through my yard. Right off, she starts yelling that my daughter's got his Game Boy, she's got witnesses that saw her with it, and if we don't give it back she's calling the cops.
Like I said, I can be polite. But, if you come barreling up into my yard with the attitude that this woman had, raising as much of a stink as she did, polite is the last thing that you're going to get.
I told her that my daughter didn't have it, and if she wanted to call the cops to go right ahead and I'd let them in to look for it. Well, that just pissed her off even more and she went storming off to her pickup saying that she was going to go get her "witnesses" and bring them over and call the cops. I told her to go ahead and save the gas and call the cops now, or I could call them for her. That really pissed her off. She grabbed her cell phone and called 911. Of course, she's pissed, so she's yelling at the dispatcher, which means that I can hear everything that she's saying, and it was rather amusing. It went something like this--
"I need an officer at <my address>. I'm being threatened."
"Yes, I'm being threatened by a man at <my address>."
"Hurry, I'm being threatened."
So, polite went from being just inside the door, to being locked in a safe without knowing the combination.
She calls down to the mother of the girl that my daughter plays with at her grandparent's house telling them "He says that he knows that you're daughter has it", at which point I yell "I never said that she had it. I said that my daughter didn't have it."
At this point, my wife enters the picture, hearing my comments and asking who the "she" was. I told her, and she walked down the street to the girl's mother's house to talk to her and the girl's grandparent's (they only live a couple of houses apart).
Now, while all of this is going on, this kid is yelling at his mother, telling her "take me home now, bitch", "I just want to go home", "forget it, take me home", etc. He starts punching the tailgate of the pickup. When the cops show up a few minutes later, he's punching the side of the bed of the pickup, and the cop has to physically restrain him to make him stop. One cop talks to her, while another comes over to me.
As he approaches, I comment "I guess you're here about a woman being threatened." He nods, and asks what's going on, so I tell him. He makes a comment about the kid being "problematic". I said "Yep, I saw what he was doing when you pulled up. Here's what he's been doing around here since he showed up...", and proceeded to tell him of this kids antics in the neighborhood.
He passes off the information to the other cop and tells us that the other cop with be with us shortly. The other cop walks up and verifies what we had told the first cop. He tells us that from his investigation, we're not suspects. I told him that it didn't matter if we were suspects or not, I wanted him to check my daughter's room to see that the Game Boy wasn't in there. He did, and it wasn't there, so I told him as we're walking to the door to tell that woman, and her kid, to stay away from my house or I would have them arrested for trespassing. (In Texas, if you tell an officer, or tell someone in front of witnesses to stay off of your property, and they come back, that's all that's needed to have them arrested for criminal trespassing.)
As for this woman, what happened to being polite and showing even a hint of manners? Has our society regressed so far that the norm is flying off the handle before you even attempt to get the facts straight? Is it now "OK" to go to someone's home and verbally attack them before you even introduce yourself, over something that they didn't do? What kind of example is this setting for her kid? Or my daughter, who was innocently standing at the door when all of this was going down?
When I was a kid, if I had acted the way that this kid was, I would have been spanked all the way back to the house. If I had talked to my mother the way that he was talking to his, I probably would have been slapped hard enough to loosen a few teeth. Has Child Protective Services gone so far with their claims of "abuse" that parents are now afraid to spank their children? For some things, spanking is the only thing that will "get the point across". For some things, "timeout" and "grounding" just aren't stiff enough punishments.
. . .omg, they would've had to arrest me to keep me from attacking that witch! no way could i have stood there and took that crap! i won't take it from anyone i know and/or love, much less from a complete stranger! you have exhibited remarkable control, jeff.
